Armand Bagramyan keeps adding to historic season for La Cañada High soccer
Armand Bagramyan’s historically significant season for the La Cañada High boys’ soccer team is being etched further into Spartans lore.
Nearly five months after Bagramyan last stepped on La Cañada’s pitch, he’s still being rewarded for a stellar senior season. The UCSB-bound forward was a third-team selection to the Elite Soccer Report’s Winter All-American list, which was released July 11.
“It’s a big honor and I am happy that I can represent the school well,” said Bagramyan, who moved into UCSB over the weekend.
Already recognized as an elite player in the state, Bagramyan can now add a national honor to his resume. He has already received a slew of honors, including the top All-Area award along with All-CIF Southern Section Division V first-team and All-Rio Hondo League Offensive Player of the Year distinctions.
“It’s a tremendous honor for him, it’s been a long time since the program has had an All-American,” said La Cañada Coach Alex Harrison, who added the last national award came in 1996. “It’s neat to have it for the program and for Armand.”
Bagramyan scored the second-most goals in California in the 2012-13 campaign, according to MaxPreps.com, after he found the net 43 times and added 21 assists.
It set a new season-high in goals scored for La Cañada after Josh Henderson set the previous mark at 41 in 1996.
“It’s very special, he had a season not a lot of people can put together,” Harrison said. “It was record breaking for him and the high school. It’s very well deserved for him with all those accolades.”
While it was a spectacular individual season for Bagramyan, both he and Harrison expressed some regret on how the season ended. The Spartans went 18-4-2 and were ranked atop the Division V rankings most of the year.
Things turned south for La Cañada when it tied South Pasadena in the Rio Hondo League finale. It put the Spartans in the No. 2 position in league — with an 8-1-1 mark after South Pas had defeated them earlier in the year — heading into playoffs. La Cañada then fell to Marshall Fundamental, 2-1, in the first round of CIF.
“Obviously, as a team we could have done better and gone further in CIF, but you can’t really change anything now,” Bagramyan said. “Obviously, breaking the record was good for me but there were some games where I could have done better.”
Despite the early ending to his high school finale, Bagramyan will likely be remembered as one of the best players in Spartans history and he’s focused on accomplishing more. First off, he’s looking to make an immediate impact with the Gauchos.
“There’s already talks of me playing a lot,” said Bagramyan, who’s determined to play professionally one day, as well. “I am looking to help the team as much as I can, help them win championships.”